I just saw the announcement on GSMarena and got me hype for iPhone 7plus. Don't get me wrong , coming from Android fan boy , the dual camera on 7plus look cool and the jet black colour is good too.
Just wondering will anyone upgrade or buy the new iPhone? Personally , I would love to get one for my wifu. Will wait to see how much the plan gonna cost.
http://m.gsmarena.com/iphone_7_is_official_isnt_afraid_of_wa…
http://m.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_7_plus_official_with_two_…
Actually the specs are falling behind again.
The screens are still the same old low resolution budget models as the 6, but they have finally bumped the processor from dual core to quad core (others in the Android world have obviously had quad as a base level for ages now). They are big.LITTLE so it's really only two proper cores though, the others are very low spec and only for tickover tasks to save battery.
I'd also be careful if those wireless headphones are proper bluetooth or not. There was talk they 'adapted' the standard to their own proprietary ends.
Personally I'd wait till next year, when they might actually bring out something to catch up with the market, and possibly bring the headphone socket back too.
Wireless headphones are optional extra at $229. They ship with cabled headphones and an adapter if required.
Yeah, but what I was pointing out was that people are gleefully saying "bluetooth earbuds" and not only do apple have a track record of screwing up bluetooth, there was a story just before launch that it wasn't actually bluetooth - the 'special W1 chip' was something they had mucked about with.
If you look at what apple say, they never mention bluetooth, they call them 'wireless'. Spidey sense tingling….
So don't assume you'll be able to use better sounding, cheaper, bluetooth headphones with it till someone has tested it out.
@sane:
I agree 100% about the screen resolution comparison with high end Android phones, however the argument about lacking a more powerful processor has no merit at all as the software optimisation always puts iPhones ahead in terms of tests such as Geekbench. Android phones need quad-core 4gb ram to just run the software in most cases, maybe not vanilla nexus phones but oem versions
@sane: apparently it is Bluetooth 4.2 running the sound. The W1 chip is what makes the instant syncing and hand off to a new device (instead of the Bluetooth stack, which apparently will be used for that purpose with non Apple devices), Siri, the IR on/off, the accelerometer and battery management.
Not that I would spend that kind of dosh on earbuds though. But they certainly seem quite impressive tech. They aren't ordinary earphones. There are a series of beats with the W1 chip too.
At that price though the sound would want to be good.
As I pointed out below (and got downvoted for providing facts), the geekbench that apple reference is always the single threaded one, not the multi threaded one.
Doesn't really matter if the fanbois like it or not, the apple efforts really do lack. That's because apple always bump the spec the minimum possible amount with every new version, so they fall behind the curve.
Now maybe they will have a go at catching up next year, but for this year its silly to waste over $1000 on a phone that's worth $200-300 at most.
@sane: if you ever play any new 3D game in an iphone 6s and a latest android phone, you will see iphone(which was launched a year ago) is performing as good as the android phone which has better spec. Also any Apples apps/games can be run smoothly. You might say apple just did better optimization for the app, but as a user I only care about the result.
@batsxs: apple makes their own hardware, if you studied how operating systems works, there are lots of resources wasted with Intel-windows compare to Mac, same story for Android and ios.
Its not about of hardware, its rather about os preference. That's all.
@sane: It's been confirmed they work with Android, which should mean they're using Bluetooth. http://www.androidauthority.com/apples-new-airpods-work-andr…
@sane: According to Apple they will work with any bluetooth device (eg PC / Android etc). But the extra features (eg Siri / 'quick' pairing) only work with OSX/iOS.
But you'll lose them within minutes anyway, so… :p
Higher cores != Better/higher Performance
No it doesn't. Single core performance is the most important thing. You could have 8 cores but an optimise dual core would perform much better if it's single core is good.
Also technically we can say the new A10 chip is dual core in a way because only 2 cores are high performance while the other 2 are battery saving cores that runs at 20% power only.
Only one of the other will run, all 4 cores wont run at the same time. They just made it Quad core so they can get better battery life through performance saving cores
The way the application is written and the nature of the workload will determine if a high speed single core, or lower speed multiple cores are better.
others in the Android world have obviously had quad as a base level for ages now
Yeah but that's because Android is such an unoptimised OS.
And it never will, Apple has the advantage of writing the OS for a single integrated hardware
they can optimise right down to every single layer of their device to their liking.
They can optimise and design stuff at the early stage of the life cycle and doesn't have to
worry about anybody else.
where Android has to cater for thousand of generic devices out there that run Android.
@Sane Like Duoka said, number of cores does not amount to higher performance.
I suggest you and any other doubters look at this video: https://youtu.be/3-61FFoJFy0
Bare in mind, that the iPhone 6s is a year older and it still trumps the Note 7 by a mile.
Yes, in terms of screen resolution and RAM, the iPhone is behind, but in terms of CPU the A series chips are much further ahead of qualcomm.
Despite all this, I'm not too fussed about processing power, I'm still happy with my iPhone 5s. My battery life has started to dip though so I might end up buying a used 6s.
After using an s7 edge, looking at the iphone's bezel really gets to you…
You're out of your mind. By any benchmarks, the iPhone7/7+ are the most powerful phones on the market today. In fact, the iPhone 6s/6s+ are the second most powerful. Androids are miles behind in terms of power.
I hope you understand that you can't charge while taking calls/listing to music with cabled headphones which come with the phone.
I'm into iphone. Guess i'm a female :P
I'm into female. Guess I'm an iphone :D
I'm into your sense of humor. Guess I'm a female with iPhone. ^_^
She loves you until the next best thing comes out and you get dumped… sounds about right :P
Do you use the pink one?
It's GOLD okay. ROSE! GOLD!
(that's what I picture an iFan would say)
My misses recently converted from iPhone to an S7 and loves it.
Witches and wizards are into iPhone. Only Muggles are into their Androids.
And Mudbloods into Windows
Symbian for…?
Squibs
What a fantastically ridiculous thing to say, AsianBargain.
"Our research has not shown that consumers in the past rejected newer iPhones due to the change to the Lightning connector."
I know there's a lightning to 3.5mm connector and we knew this change was coming but I'm not a fan. The move from 30pin to lightning was the straw that broke the camels back for me and I moved away from iPhone. Having to pay about $40 for a 30 cent adaptor was the tipping point last change, at least in this case an adaptor is provided. How much to buy another one when you lose it?
Exactly. I hate apple that way. When I heard they gonna remove audio jack , my first thought was " here we go again , they gonna sell adapter at higher price " . However, at lease they provide ONE for you .
But how good is that lightning connector now. I hated the change, but now I realise how shit that 30 pin crap was.
It's fine, they can only ostracise people with backwards compatability once each change. They really should have provided a free adapter which would have bridged people until they purchased new accessories.
Why provide a free adaptor when you can sell them for $12, knowing that people will buy without question.
how can you charge the phone and listen to music at the same time?
I though that too. Then I realised, I had never, ever done so. Nor had I seen anyone do it either. So meh.
The question is does using the Lightning port for earphones improve the sound or not? I will wait for reviews with interest.
Use the speaker…
As the lightning port has no DAC (digital-audio converter) it's entirely reliant on the headphones you buy. Which can be a good thing as it allows for better sound as manufacturers can build better amplifiers into the headphones instead of being limited by the 3.5mm audio jack.
I could be entirely wrong though.
At the moment it's possible to run a wired set of speakers for many hours while keeping the phone charging. This is very useful for parties. You could have background music for a party with no more effort than creating a playlist, plugging in and hitting play. You still can with 'droid. This is madness.
Nope you're right.
Most headphones won't really see an increase/decrease in quality.
But the high-end stuff will get much much better.
Actually, the high-end users were already using DACs to begin with.
Now, its just official and a more elegant solution.
This really is the way forward.
Now the only question remaining is:
…will Apple roll over (to the consumer) the profit gained by that extra space freed up inside the phone?
They should be able to make the phones significantly thinner.
Or include radios/processors that are significantly more powerful.
Or bump up significantly the capacity of the internal battery.
If Apple doesn't… then nixing the port will be done in vain.
@syousef:
But most people using it to play music at parties etc will be connected via bluetooth, or the lightning connector to the speakers anyway, not via the headphone jack.
Who says? I usually run my music out of a laptop at my kids' birthday parties. My backup plan if that fails is my phone. I use wired speakers. That way I don't have to worry about interference, dropouts and the like.
If you want high end headphones you don't use bluetooth. Most high end phones come with a DAC. If you want really high end "audiophile" sound you don't usually do it from a phone anyway. In any case all this is doing is taking away an option. All you've mentioned is quite doable while still leaving a 3.5mm jack in place.
No you didn't understand.
I never was talking about Bluetooth, I was talking about wired high-end solution, and it was obvious.
Audiophiles have been using Android, microUSB, and an external DAC to their headsets for years.
There are of course, solutions to iPhones too.
Now, its practically required to have a DAC with your headphones.
That means, in particularly over the ears, headsets will come out with those external DAC's built in.
It also means they will be talking to the iPhone properly/officially as its become a standard.
So overall, audiophiles will see improvements
(wether it is quality, cost, size, convenience, or all).
However, to the average user, they won't see any benefit from this.
They're equally served with Bluetooth or the new Lightning EarPods.
You missed my point: None of that requires you to take out the 3.5mm jack. If this is only for high end devices that can already exist with previous generations, this doesn't help those users. It just screws over non-audiophiles who do use 3.5mm.
Well, yes, but you still didn't understand my point.
Towards the bottom of my initial point:
I said that Apple has to roll over the profits of taking out the 3.5 aux port.
And by profit I don't mean profit in terms of money.
I mean profit in terms of space.
Every mm is important in such portable devices.
So taking out the aux port will mean three main things:
- reshuffling of internals to make the device smaller
- reshuffling to include a larger battery
- reshuffling to include a larger radio/processor for more power.
So if Apple doesn't add something meaningful, then it seems, as I've stated above, to be all in vain.
We won't quite know until iFixit get their hands on it, but from initial looks, it seems to me that they have.
How?
- Water proof/resistance (ingress catchment/management)
- Weight reduction (5 grams)
- Larger camera
- Extra speaker on top
- Haptic engine in Home Button
- Processor improvements (we normally wouldn't see much any going from an S model to a non-S)
- Battery life improvement (14%, possibly due to a larger battery)
Suppose none of those improvements was possible with the aux port, you really have to ask yourself… is the trade off worth it?
@entropysbane: I charge and listen to music all the time due my job being a consultant i am often onsite at clients working away minding my own business with my iphone charging as i am tethering 4G internet to my laptop and listening to my iphone music…. not keen on this change to.
I think you overestimate the amount of space saved.
@syousef:
I don't get why it's difficult for you to understand.
The 3.5mm port is great, but its still an analogue connection.
Everything is going digital these days, which is usually for the better.
The worst part about going digital is the transition period, but Apple has the "courage" to move on.
I mean just think for a moment, would you really prefer the RWY rga cables over an HDMI connection??
It was a pain in the rear, but we made the transition.
We also ditched cassette's for music and video, and made the transition to disks.
That transition was a long/painful one too, if you're old enough to remember.
Hell, we even had a transition with Apple's 30-pin to their Lightning connector not long ago.
And now we're trying to ditch USB's (micro, mini, full-size) and go all-in with USB-C (which could displace HDMI aswell)
And just because you don't care about the advancements Apple has made, does NOT mean that they're not advancements.
And just to give you a sense of scale of the 3.5mm aux port, here's the iPhone 6S iFixit teardown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROCzV9gMuA0#t=1m38s
It looks like the port takes up roughly 16 x 12 x 4mm's (~770mm3) in size.
That's ~1.2% of the total phone's size (~63,800mm3), which is quite significant.
Or compared to the battery it's 7% of the Lithium (~11,900mm3), quite significant.
It's also likely that its even more significant than I stated, because I rounded things down.
And remember one thing… this is an iPhone. There will be no shortage of headphones for this.
And that might mean better audio.
And no doubt, the competition will also adjust to this… so we'll probably see headphones w/ DACs and USB-C connectors go mainstream too.
I understand your argument perfectly well. You don't need to keep repeating it. It is just that I consider it misguided at best.
Analog is absolutely fine for the last leg in sound. Hate to break it to you: Your ears are analogue. Sound waves are analogue. Everything is already recorded and kept as digital. You just have a DAC to convert it for output. You're fixing a problem that doesn't exist. Audio is fantastic today in high end devices that make it a priority.
The analogy to computer screen is ridiculous. As is the comparison to cassette tape. These aren't the same things at all. By the time we got rid of the old with those, we had much better alternatives in continuous use with no drawbacks. And yet still the technology ran in parallel for some time. It wasn't unceremoniously ditched. No one built and widely distributed sound systems that ditched cassette tape for CD. The CD player was an expensive add-on that gradually got cheaper.
There is no "courage" here, just removal of options and selling lousy adapters, locking in users with proprietary interfaces, and limiting . Quit drinking the Koolaid. Most people would be happy with a slight increase in size if it gave them convenient access to THE VAST MAJORITY of speakers and headphones around today.
Once upon a time Apple actually had a resurgence giving things to people that they wanted instead of taking them away. The iPod let you carry a whole sound library in your pocket where 90 minutes use to fit. Even that wasn't innovative. The just popularized it. And even then they engaged in bad practices - so bad that the ACCC stepped in at one point. But this? This is a joke. They're just taking something away and providing nothing new. We've had bluetooth headphones for years.
Yes, I am with you in that I would prefer to have both… NOW.
However, in the future it is better to have better quality offering on new standards.
A transition is eventually necessary, and sometimes the earlier the better.
The analogy with video is perfect.
Because when CD's were released they were actually inferior to the tried, tested, and perfected cassettes.
CD's or VCDs needed maturation. Then DVDs (and PS2) happened, bam! Cassettes were no more.
I suspect the same thing with iPhones.
I think it will be a rocky transition for a long amount of years, but then the market will mature.
Then people will acknowledge the improvement.
Again, you might tolerate a phone that is larger, heavier, slower, less-featured and short-lasting.
However, I'd wager the majority would not.
Again, look beyond… you will see what I mean.
(PS I hated the omission of disk drive from laptops, but now I see that I was wrong, and that for the majority it is better without it to improve the overall product, and that people who desperately want it, can still opt-in by using a dongle/connection)
There is no advantage to this early transition for me. Quite frankly I hope it hurts Apple and teaches them a lesson. I don't need or want this. I certainly won't buy it. It does not benefit me in any way shape or form.
I lived it and there was no bam with the death of cassettes. Audio and video casettes co-existed with CD and DVD for well over a decade. I still own them. They're just relics now. When the choice was a $400 iPod or a $35 Walkman, I continued to use the Walkman.
And you're wrong about phone size. Phones use to be smaller. Are you old enough to remember that? They only got larger due to the advent of the "smart phone" - actually an amalgamation of the palmtop computer and phone. And people are buying bigger and bigger devices. They are preferring large screens.
Try playing Pokémon Go without an external power bank. So you only get one choice headphones or charge. Guess most will give in with no headphones. $229 is too steep
@syousef:
Phones used to be smaller, but smartphones used to be larger.
Do you remember the Zaurus?
How about the OQO?
One of the older but "first" modern smartphone was the O2 XDA (or HTC Pocket PC).
I personally loved the HTC TyTN II/Touch PRO.
Never did like the iPod, because it was redundant when phones could already play music.
By the way, phones are no longer getting larger.
After 5.7inches, that's it. There's plenty of variety and larger devices, but people don't buy them.
Going too large makes it harder to hold, and impossible to put into pockets.
I predicted this outcome back in 2011.
There's plenty of phone sales at 5.7inches (and 5.5inches by proxy).
And there's plenty of phone sales at the medium size 5 inch (and 4.6inch by proxy).
But there's less sales for small phones at 4 inch size (the iPhone SE seems to be the notable exception).
5.7 inches is plenty of space. Make the damn thing thicker by 4mm if you need more room for a battery and electronics. As a bonus it won't bend.
@syousef:
Agreed.
Personally some flex is alright with me, as long as it bounces back to form.
Not like the iPhone 6 bendgate epidemic.
You can use the official iPhone dock, or buy the belkin one.
@Kangal: sounds expensive buying high end headphones with built-in dac.
Just buy a portable dac and decent headphones… Doesn't seem like apple wants you to spend less or make it easy.
@punk:
High-end headphones have always been expensive.
But they've been (profanity) for a long while, because they relied on an analogue deliver despite using high-grade materials.
Digital really is the way to go.
So if you eliminate analogue connection all-together within the headphone itself, then you don't need to resort to using a lot of trickery to distinguish your low and high pitch sounds and try to engineer the headset to enhance them separately.
Because it is digital, you can have a "smart" headset that knows how to handle each track.
You can even now have multiple speakers within one ear which all release sounds based on different pitch to try to recreate a more natural tone (contrast to an analogue one).
There's just more possibilities.
And as I've stated before, at first it won't make a lick of difference.
But somewhere down the line, going digital, nixing analogue, and forcing the hi-end stuff to have a built-in DAC is going to make a great improvement. Not just for headsets, but portable speakers that have their own DACs/Amps will sound much more fuller, clearer and louder than those which use the 3.5mm aux connection.
Cook:You're using the phone the wrong way.
The lightning connector isn't very good. My colleague broke multiple original lightning cables. He did get them replaced, but the Apple Store staff said it is a common problem and even suggested he purchase some Belkin ones (seriously???). When I had to get mine replaced, it was a bit tedious.
I had to purchase a new set of lightning to vga & lightning to hdmi cables (cannot use 30 pins ones I bought before since the lightning to 30 pin converter doesn't support them). I also have an infrared sending (using 30 pin connector) device which I can no longer use.
Lightning was a great improvement over 30-pin, but - and this is obviously contrary to Apple's ideals - there was already a lovely spec in Micro-USB which would have made everything so much easier. Not reversible, sure… but USB-C is out now, it's reversible, and Apple is already using it in their notebooks. I would have liked them to move to that instead of maintaining their own connector type for the iPhone.
How much to buy another one when you lose it?
$9 USD
~AUD $12
~ZWL$243
~Ƀ0.0145
You are an absolute d1ckhead if you think moving from the 30 pin to Lightning was a bad idea. Seriously.
It's more about why not use a standard like micro usb/usb3, rather than yet another proprietary standard. No converter included. And, the official converter does not support video. So, need to buy a new set of video adaptors.
Third party cables have issues, especially cheap ones. And, some have plugs too big which doesn't fit covers. And $25+ for a cable. Only Apple can get away with that.
Because i can insert my lightning cable either way in to my phone and dont need to waste any time alighning both ends, useful in the dark.
@2Krazy: The new USB-C standard does that too. However, the issues I have is this:
- Let's not forget the other side of that cable is USB 2. Can you insert it either way? Don't think so.
- A lot of 3rd party cables are not reliable enough (they don't last long enough).
- Even the original ones, I had to get mine replaced. My colleague had 3 replaced.
- Not fully backward compatible with Apple 30 pins. I really want to get rid of my iPad 3. However, I still have devices which require 30 pins. The converter won't work.
When it comes to 30-pin vs lightning, while there is no doubt lightning can plug-in either way and is smaller, Apple's decision to put a chip in the cable, has caused issues. Like all cables with small connectors, they are more fragile.
To me, I have thrown away so many lightning cables and I need to take good care of my Apple authentic lightning cables (even though I can get them replaced if broken, it is still time consuming for me to get to an Apple store).
@netsurfer: Well the usb end is constantly plugged in to the adapter.
The Anker cable i have is holding up very well, MUCH stronger than original cable.
No complaints from me, but yes the original cable is pretty fragile though.
@2Krazy: To me, another frustrating bit is the lightning to HDMI adapter. Read the below:
https://9to5mac.com/2013/03/01/the-lightning-digital-av-adap…
Essentially, while the 30-pin version of it is 1080p, the lightning version of it is not true 1080p. Therefore, in reality, there is some information that the 30-pin connector carries which is removed in lightning and that's why a true lightning to 30-pin converter cannot be made.
@2Krazy: +1 for Anker cables.
-1 for the original cables.
One of usb cables I had for my work phone lasted less than 2 weeks!…..
Any cheap cable is going to poor quality - I've never had a decent quality Micro USB cable. And, as stated before, it's not reversible. Don't give me that shit about the other end being non-reversible USB, cos that's a ridiculous conclusion and argument to make.
@ThithLord: Between my colleague and I, we had 4 original Apple lightning cables needed replacing. Also, some cases have issues with certain cables because some manufacturers try to make the lightning end stronger, making it bulkier. The lightning cable idea might be good, but this Apple chip inside the cable is problematic. That design is more for $$$ rather than good design.
As for the other side being not reversible, there is a way to make that reversible too. Apple knows how to do it. There have been rumours that Apple would include a both side reversible cable before iPhone 6S was released. That didn't happen.
Also, not 100% backward compatible (to 30-pin), that's Apple, isn't it?
And, if you are saying I need to buy some 3rd party cables because they are better than Apple's, then it only highlights the design of lightning cable isn't good.
@netsurfer: False equivalence - I never said that because you can buy a good quality Lightning cable, your argument is invalid - I purely said any cheap cable is going to be poor quality.
I've had the exact same Lightning cable on my desk and at home by my bed, both are in immaculate condition. I guess it's how you use it that determines it's longevity.
Those wireless headphones are going to be an extra $229 WTF. Apple is working hard to wring as much money out of people as possible.
And what's worse is that everyone knows the sound quality of Apple headphones is crap compared to the alternatives.
and whats worse than that is that people will pay it
Great, so you can buy much better quality bluetooth headphones at a cheaper price.
Don't worry XIAOMI will come through for us and make a $30 alternative with better sound quality too
beats have 200+ wireless earphones too… so its not unique to Apple. Based on review Apple's one have better user experience when used with the iphone (i.e. auto-pause when it detects you removing the bud), not sure about sound though
I'm okay with saving 200 dollars by pressing the pause or back button on my phone…
I'm not too stoked with the new specs….nothing new. I'll hold onto my ipohone 6 and wait for the 10th anniversary edition.
Yet , people still sleep in the queue for couple day to get first hand on their new product.
I never understand why.
They get paid for that, you never know
I shamelessly hopped in the queue in San Fran when I saw they were handing out bagel lunches to those in line. 20 seconds later I stepped back out of the line with my free lunch. Free lunches - it happens.
It wasn't free. You sold your dignity and endorsed an evil empire :P
Free food wins :D
I've already lost those wireless headphones
so good! :)
As funny as that is. You don't get wireless headphones in the box. You get normal headphones with a ligntning connector on the end. The wireless headphones are an extra $229.
They should have sacked up and put the wireless ones in the box, or none at all. A new iPhone with adapters in the box is LAME.
They don't care
yep, im an android fan boy, but the misses loves her iphone.
plan on getting her one outright to replace her 5s. the specs look quite good